Since Abuja became Nigeria’s capital in 1991, there has been an increasing influx of people from different parts of the country into the city. PAUL OKAH in this report takes a critical look at the accommodation problems experienced by different classes of people striving to eke out a living in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Among the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, and clothing, accommodation appears to be the greatest need of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) residents, especially as there is a high influx of people from different parts of the country into the nation’s capital since 1991.
While many have embraced life in suburbs, where they spend a lot on transportation to get to work in the city centre, those living in the city centre have become objects of exploitation by landlords and agents, even as some houses remain unoccupied, except by rats, lizards and other rodents.
Suburban accommodation
Depending on the location, like Kugbo, Nyanya, Karu, Jikwoyi, Karshi, among others, a single-room apartment in a ‘face me I face you’ area can go for N50, 000, N60, 000 or N70, 000. The houses are usually congested and people easily fall sick, because the environment is not healthy, as everything is commonly shared.
For instance, in a compound with rooms for more than ten tenants, a toilet and bathroom can be shared among them. In a single-room, you can have more than one person or a family of five, seven or ten living in a room. This can be multiplied by the number of rooms in the building. Yet, they are all expected to share a single toilet or bathroom. There is also well or tap water for general use.
It is needless to say that the single-room is for low income earners. The occupants are mostly artisans, small-scale retailers or apprentices. Sometimes, even students, corps members or workers with poor background rent single rooms for temporary accommodation. However, once they make enough money, they naturally turn their attention to ‘self-contain’ rooms.
Self-contain rooms in the suburbs mentioned above may go from N150,000, N200,000, N250,000 or N300, 000: depending on the environment and architectural designs. The major difference between self-contain and single-rooms is that you are supposed to have everything to yourself. You have your own toilet, bathroom and water running in the house. However, sometimes, there may be no water running inside the house.
Tenants are expected to buy water from vendors or fetch from a well usually dug by the landlord. In most cases, prepaid meters are installed for individual tenants for electricity or they share a particular one. In another case, where there is no prepaid metre, the tenants pay estimated bills.
For bigger apartments, like a bedroom flat, two-bedroom or three-bedroom apartments, the prices are higher, as they are more spacious and for bigger families. Whereas self-contains in the suburbs are less than N200,000, a bedroom, two- bedroom or three-bedroom flat, depending on the type of house and facilities therein, can be rented between N200,000, N300,000 and N500,000.
Other satellite towns
Being satellite towns considered closer to the city centre, areas like Mpape, Jahi, Katampe, Lugbe, Durumi, and others, also have slightly lower rent prices and sometimes quite similar to the suburbs. In most cases, they are settlements just behind the city centre.
The major difference is that the environments are usually better and less congested than the suburbs. They also have the advantage of steady power supply, especially as they are closer to the city centre.
Moreover, those living in these areas are often absolved of the traffic congestion faced by those living in suburbs like Karu, Jikwoyi, Nyanya, Kugbo and even as far as Keffi, Masaka, New Nyanya, Mararaba or other communities in neighbouring Nasarawa state.
In the city centre
Those living in Wuse, Asokoro, Gwarinpa, Maitama and other highbrow areas within the city centre are regarded as those belong to the upper class in Nigeria. Sometimes, buildings in these areas are owned and occupied by politicians, top businessmen and top civil servants.
Getting a ‘self-contain’ or boy’s quarters’ in these areas is sometimes difficult, as houses here are built for large families. In many cases, ‘self-contain’ or ‘boys’ quarters’ apartment can go for N400, 000 to N500, 000. One bedroom in Maitama, Asokoro or parts of Gwarinpa can go from 1 million naira to N1.2 million. Two-bedroom is from N1.5 million to N2 million and so on. At times, the houses are built for young couples or bachelors. Large families go for bigger apartments and the prices skyrocket.
Tenants lament
Expectedly, many tenants express concerns over the increasing rise in accommodation costs in different parts of the territory. Many attribute the situation to different things, ranging from greed on the part of landlords to increase in the demand for apartments.
For Mr Emmanuel Chukwu, a civil servant living in Kado Kuchi, a settlement behind Next Cash and Carry supermarket, many landlords deliberately drive tenants nuts with upward reviews of rents.
In a chat with Blueprint Weekend, Chukwu said landlords in this part of Abuja seem to have this common agenda of exploiting those in need of accommodation, as rents are higher than necessary probably as a result of proximity of the settlement to the city centre.
He said, “You must be relatively wealthy to think of renting a house here, because they are rather on the high side. For a single-room, you will not get a standard one, except you have N70, 000, N80, 000 or even N100, 000. Mind you, the prices I just mentioned can be used to rent standard self contained rooms in places like Mararaba and Nyanya. But here in Kado Kuchi, it is just for single rooms that may not even be of standard.
“Then, when you talk of self contained rooms here, you don’t even brush the subject with landlords except you have between N200,000, N250,000, N300,000 or N400, 000. That’s for self-contain rooms alone o. Needless to say that you must know of your economic status before you can inquire of prices for a bedroom or two-bedroom apartments, because they run from N500, 000 to millions of naira.”
Continuing, he said, “Mind you, the 10 per cent charged by murderous agents are not yet included. The higher the prices of accommodation, the higher you reserve for agents, because they insist on collecting ten per cent of the total cost of rent. So, why shouldn’t tenants complain? Landlords in Abuja are simply inhuman. They don’t have conscience at all. They use the opportunity of God blessing them with a house to exploit others.
“What is the crime of tenants in Abuja, particularly Kado Kuchi? Simple: they want to be human and to live near the city centre. Of course, Kado Kuchi is situated close to different parts of the city centre like Wuse, Area One, Maitama and the rest, but must the tenants be exploited? If care is not taken, tenants may revolt against landlords one of these days.”
According to Mr Timothy Ude, a trader in Kado Kuchi, landlords milk tenants dry in the community. He said the landlords are so exploitative that they keep increasing rents indiscriminately. He said tenants hardly spend more than three years in a particular apartment, as landlords would find one excuse or another to eject the tenant in order to take in a new tenant that can pay double the rent paid by the previous tenant.
He said landlords also find a way to include outrageous bills in their tenancy agreement such that the tenant may not know he is paying for what the landlord is supposed to pay to different agencies.
“Some tenants living in apartments think that the water, electricity or other facilities they are using is free of charge. The truth is that landlords charge double the amount the tenant is supposed to pay for electricity or water at the point of paying rent, which is one of the reasons why accommodation is very expensive here, despite the houses not being in good condition,” he said.
Also speaking with Blueprint Weekend, a housewife, Mrs Chinyere Chukwu, said that, as a result of the high cost of accommodation in Kado Kuchi, she cannot wait to leave the community, as the environment is not even healthy for human beings to live in.
“I can’t say in a few words the inconveniences we encounter living in this environment. Honestly, I will leave here once the economy of my family improves. You can’t imagine what we pass through because of the dirty environment, murky water everywhere and poignant smell. Even at night, mosquitoes will not allow us to sleep. It is only by the grace of God that we are still alive.
“The only good thing is that the community is very close to town. It is not like Nyanya or Mararaba where you have to spend endless time in traffic, you can actually pay just N50 to go to Wuse from here. Nevertheless, it is very discouraging that people here live in subhuman conditions and have been totally neglected by government. However, you can’t expect much from a settlement living in fear of demolition,” she said.
Agents as ‘lords’
For housing agents, any tenant in need of accommodation is a possible avenue for exploitation, as they charge ten per cent of the cost of rent, especially in Kado Kuchi, a settlement in Abuja. Sometimes, the amount is non-negotiable, as the agents insist on being paid upfront at the very moment the tenant is making payment to the landlord.
They believe that they may not possibly get the complete balance once the tenant moves into a newly rented apartment. In many cases, they insist the landlord pay them with money from the rent and then settle with the new tenant at a later date.
In case a tenant moves in without paying the agency fee, the agent, who is believed to operate illegally at times, would lock the apartment with a separate key; to ensure that the tenant does not access it. The tenant is then forced to run around for money to settle the agent before the apartment can be accessed.
Sometimes both agent and tenant find themselves in police cells for problems emanating from settlement of agency fees. In most cases, the case can be taken to court for settlement, whereas in other cases, the police make peace between tenant and agent.
Houses without occupants
Ironically, because of the high rent, some houses in the city centre remain unoccupied, while those in the suburbs remain overpopulated. Some landlords build houses with the aim of renting to expatriates or foreigners at very high prices. However, if the quality of the house is too high, in a harsh economy, people can hardly cough out N2m to rent the house.
Some build houses with the intention of selling to foreigners, who sometimes are discouraged by the security situation to come to Nigeria, hence the houses stay abandoned. Some houses in Asokoro, Maitama, Gwarinpa, Utako, and other areas end up being occupied by rats, lizards and rodents: whereas people in the suburbs are congested in dilapidated rooms.
Sometimes, owners of buildings may be under the watch of government because of corruption allegations from EFCC, ICPC or might have offended the government of the day and would not want to be associated with a particular building, let alone give out to real estate managers.
‘Govt not doing enough’
In an exclusive interview with Blueprint Weekend, a real estate manager, Mr Musa Paiko, said government is not doing much in settling the problem of accommodation being faced by Nigerians in different parts of the country, especially in the FCT.
He said, “I may not have the data, but, for instance, if we have three million people in Abuja alone and government builds houses for one million people, has that solved the accommodation problems? I am an estate surveyor and I know what I am saying. We have over 200 million people in Nigeria, but houses are not even up to one million.
“In Abuja alone, a greater number of people live in slums and suburbs because they can’t afford better houses. The better houses are even abandoned in the city centre, but you can’t just grab the keys and enter to sleep. Even the federal government cannot build houses for the poor man to afford. I was a staff of government, but I am a free man today and can talk about the realities on ground.
“I am 35 years in Abuja today, but I have been a landlord in the past ten years. If government wants to build houses for people living in Lugbe, Nyanya, Karu and other places, it shouldn’t be above N500,000 or N1 million, but you see government placing it above N3 million, or N5 million for one or two bedroom flat, how many poor people can afford that? Top government officials end up selling or sharing the houses to themselves.”
Furthermore, he said, “Government workers are selfish, particularly leaders. For instance, there was a time government said they will build ten thousand houses in all states, but did you see them build it? Even if they build, it would be to their taste, so that they can be the people occupying them. For instance, I am from Niger state. In Minna, there was a place we called Low Cost Houses during Shagari time. It was meant for government workers, but top government officials ended up selling the houses to themselves in fives and tens. Meanwhile, these people buying the houses already had their own houses here and there, whereas the people in Minna and its surroundings never dreamt of having such houses.
“It is like that in many states. They build houses and sell to billionaires, while the poor man continues to remain homeless. We have been discussing this issue in our workshops. We table the matter to government. They call it Federal Housing Scheme. There was even Ministry of Housing and Environment, later changed to Power, Works and Housing and giving to one minister to manage. The country is just going abnormal and it is left for us to individually manage our lives and not depend on government.
“There was even a time when low income earners were evicted from houses in Abuja when some people claimed to have won the houses in a government lottery. Few state governors, like the Katsina state government, had to intervene and buy houses to resell to their indigenes in Abuja. So, there is a problem in the Nigerian housing sector and I don’t foresee a solution for now. Private sectors are intervening, as well as government, but it is not enough.”
